Volume 1, Number 1 • August, 1979

Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman

by Michele Wallace

Reviewed by Sidney Brinkley

A book that has been both praised and condemned is "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman" by Michele Wallace. Comments have ranged from "a stunning achievement" to "a divisive, fractious tract ... devoid of competent scholarship." Prior to publication, the book was heavily promoted, something that is unusual for books by Black authors. Her publisher sent out a four-color folder announcing the book's imminent arrival.

"Ms." magazine, a White feminist publication, featured Ms. Wallace on the cover of its January 1979 issue, accompanied by the statement, "The book that will shape the 1980's." A long excerpt from the book was included inside. Impressive. But who is Michele Wallace and what is it she has written that would "change history?"

Michele Wallace is a 25-year-old Black feminist. She grew up in Harlem, the product of a middle class family. She attended private schools, summered in Europe and dressed out of Bonwit Teller. After graduating from college, Ms. Wallace worked for "Newsweek," taught writing at New York University and wrote for many publications including "Ms," "The Village Voice" and "Esquire."

Her book is divided into two essays, "Black Macho," which examines, in sexual terms, the Civil Rights Movement and its transition into the Black Power Movement, and "The Myth of the Superwoman," Ms. Wallace's attempt to dispel the notion of the strong Black woman.

In "Black Macho," while giving some interesting insights into the characters of Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, Ms. Wallace shows an astounding ignorance of what the Black Movement was about. Such generalities as "The Black revolutionary of the sixties calls to mind nothing so much as a child who is acting for the simple pleasure of the reaction he will elicit from, the pain he will cause, his father" are found throughout the book.

Ms. Wallace believes the Black Power Movement was not about freedom for Black people at all, just freedom for the Black man. And even that interest in freedom went no further than the length of his penis.

"And when the black man went as far as the adoration of his genitals would carry him, his revolution stopped. A big afro, a rifle and a penis in good working order were not enough to lick the White man's world after all."

If Ms. Wallace doesn't appreciate Black men very much, she has an equally low opinion of Black women. She feels today's Black woman to be shallow and superficial.

"The black woman never really dealt with the primary issues of the Black Movement. She stopped straightening her hair. She stopped using lighteners and brighteners. . . Now she has begun to straighten her hair again, to follow the latest fashions in Vogue and Mademoiselle, to rouge her cheeks furiously . . . She has little contact with other black women, and if she does, it is not of a deep sort ... And if she doesn't find a man, she might just decide to have a baby anyway."

Conversely, Ms. Wallace shows a deep admiration for the Women's Movement and its leaders. She's adored by Gloria Steinem, idolized by Susan Brownmiller. "The Women's Movement redefined womanhood for White women in a manner that allowed them to work, to be manless, but still women. White women replaced some of their traditional activities with new ones - consciousness raising, feminist meetings and demonstrations, the Women's Political Caucus, campaigns for Bella Abzug pursuit of an entirely new range of careers ... But the black woman, who had pooh-poohed the Women's Movement, was left with only one activity that was not considered suspect: motherhood. "

I'm not really sure where Michele Wallace stands on the issue of Black men and Black women but I feel she leans towards separatism when she asks Black women: "Are we satisfied to ride the tide of the changing interpretations of black manhood? Can we afford to sit by and allow him to orchestrate our future?"

Is "Black Macho & the Myth of the Superwoman" a book that could "change history"? The Book that will "shape the 1980's"? From a Black perspective, I hope not.